India and China disagree over the demarcation of several Himalayan border areas

India has unveiled plans to build a mountain road along the disputed border with China in the country's remote north-east.

The $6.5bn (£4.06bn), 1,800km (1,118 miles) all-weather road
will stretch from Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh state to where the borders
of India and China meet with Myanmar.

The road will connect sparsely populated and poorly-connected
hill communities living in four large frontier districts of Arunachal
Pradesh.

It will also help farmers in the mountainous region to
transport their organic crops and medicinal herbs to low-lying and busy
markets in neighbouring Assam state.

"This road will not boost our defences but help connect far
flung communities for economic development denied to them for so long,"
says India's junior home minister Khiren Rijiju, himself a resident of
Arunachal Pradesh.

But Indian military officials say the road will help consolidate Indian defences.

This represents a change in Indian military thinking that has
so far opposed developing roads near the border, in case it is used by
the Chinese during a conflict for speedy movement inside Indian
territory.
The road, however, could could ignite fresh tensions between India and China.

The world's two most populous countries disagree over the
demarcation of several Himalayan border areas and fought a brief war in
1962.

'Colonial legacy'
Chinese foreign office spokesperson Hong Lei has said India's
plan may "complicate" the boundary dispute which he described as a
"colonial legacy".

"Before a final settlement is reached, we hope that India
will not take any actions that may further complicate the situation. We
should jointly safeguard the peace and tranquillity of the border area
and create favourable conditions for the final settlement of the border
issue," he told reporters in Beijing.

Chinese officials say it is not fair of India to undertake
such a huge road building project in an area which is still in dispute.

"Once the dispute is resolved and the boundary is clearly
demarcated, India can build such roads in its territory, but it would be
unfair to build a road in a disputed territory," says Kong Can of the
Yunnan Development Research Institute.

He says India should agree to develop the BCIM
(Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar) highway and economic corridor from
Calcutta in India's West Bengal state to Kunming in China's Yunnan
province cutting through Bangladesh, India's north-eastern states of
Assam and Manipur and Myanmar's northern provinces.

"This highway and economic corridor will help integrate our
economies and open huge opportunities for developing our under-developed
frontier provinces and create a climate of trust that will help resolve
the border dispute," Kong Can said.

India is going slow on the project, so far just agreeing to "explore" its possibilities.

Roads in Arunachal Pradesh are poor and make troop movement difficult

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has responded to demands
from his security establishment to develop its defences against China,
which has reportedly beefed up its military infrastructure in Tibet with
a string of new railway lines, roads and at least five new airports.

Also, the rail route to Lhasa is likely to be extended to
Nyingchu, close to the Arunachal Pradesh border, Indian military
officials say.

"China has vastly beefed up its military infrastructure in
Tibet and we are only catching up. Unless we do that, China will always
arm-twist us on the border and try to impose a solution on its terms,"
says Lt Gen JR Mukherjee, former chief of staff in India's eastern army.

Last month India and China pulled back troops after a two-week stand-off
near their de facto border in Ladakh. Chinese President Xi Jinping was
visiting India when India accused his country of the fresh territorial
incursion.

Many believe that has added to Indian apprehensions and could
have influenced the decision to build the long border road that now
upsets China.